Tuesday, July 23, 2013

TSA Travel Tips Tuesday – How Not To Forget Your Laptop at the TSA Checkpoint and How to Get It Back If You Do

Happy Tuesday! In this week’s installment of Travel Tips
Tuesday, we warn you about one of the common pitfalls that result when laptops
are left behind at the security checkpoint. We also suggest how to get your
laptop back if you do forget it. Please read on if you are interested.

Out of Sight Out of Mind - While gathering items
after they come out of the X-ray, many will stack their bins to conserve space
while they’re recombobulating.
Since the laptop is a flat surface, many stack their second bin on top of the
laptop bin. This puts the laptop out of sight. So, while the traveler gathers
his or her items, the laptop is left behind as the traveler rushes off to their
gate.

Tape a Business Card to Your Laptop - Many will realize
they’ve forgotten their laptop and rush back to the checkpoint. Others do not
realize it, and in most instances, there isn’t any info on the laptop to tell
us who the owner is. It’s a good idea to tape a business card or a label with
your name and contact info on or inside of your laptop. This helps in several
ways:

It gives us a name to page.

It gives us a phone number so we can try to contact you.

It lets us know which laptop is yours when you call to
retrieve it.

How to Get Your Laptop Back – If you go to our Airport Lost & Found Contacts page, you’ll be able to find phone numbers
for each airport’s TSA lost & found office. This happened to my father recently.
He left his laptop at Cincinnati (CVG) and was in Florida before he realized he
left it behind. After contacting CVG’s TSA lost & found office, they were
kind enough to mail (at my dad’s expense) his laptop to him. That’s just one of
the options. You can also arrange to pick it up upon your return, or have a
friend or family member pick it up for you.

See you next Tuesday with more travel tips! Until then,
check out some of our previous Travel Tips Tuesday posts if you haven’t
already.

I'm going to bookmark this info (and the list of airport lost & found numbers) in my phone browser for easy access since I figure I'd probably be a bit distraught by the time I needed to use this information!

Great suggestions! I would also recommend two more things to add: Invest in a "checkpoint friendly" laptop bag, so the laptop doesn't get separated. And invest in TSA PreCheck, so you don't even have to worry about taking it out of the bag.

A laptop can stay in a bag when using a Pre-Check lane, which uses the same X-ray equipment and TSA personnel that are found in any other lane. Thus, there is no logical reason to make laptops come out their bags when your equipment and staff can still detect an anomaly. The only difference is that those in the regular lanes are being hassled in order to trump up the value of the $85 extortion fee for Pre-Check.

Bob, if laptops can be screened while in a regular bag in a Pre Check lane why can't TSA screeners do the same in the other lanes?

Is this a problem with TSA employee training or just more TSA CS?

If shoes can stay on in the Pre Check lane that suggests that shoes are not really a significant threat. In fact there has never been a shoe bomber on any U.S. originating flight.

Why are shoes required to be removed in non-Pre Check lanes? Is this another example of poor training of TSA screeners?

If TSA would make Pre Check style screening the standard entry level screening for everyone TSA would realize significant costs savings while improving travelers flow through the checkpoints. TSA could always have additional layers(you TSA people like that word)of screening for those who require extra attention.